The casings that are presently being used to carry instruments, particularly musical instrument, can be broadly categorized into two types: (a) hard casings, comprising hard outer shell made of plywood, wood, or plastic and a contoured inner recess to accommodate therein instruments of matching profile, (b) bags, also known as gig bags, comprising soft outer shell made of leather or fabric.
The conventional hard casings, belonging to the first category, have contoured interior usually made up of moulded plastic or carved thermocol, confines the instrument in its place even during transportation. But such hard casings are heavy, awkward in shape and are expensive though they do provide satisfactory protection to the musical instrument housed inside. More often than not the musicians find it cumbersome to carry musical instrument in it. Moreover such casings are very much instrument-specific. A casing being used for an instrument of a particular type or make is not suited to carry instruments of varying shape and size, albeit of same genre.
The gig bag type conventional casings being made up of materials like leather or fabric are comparatively light in weight. These bags do allow instruments to be carried conveniently. But the main drawback of these bags is that in case of accidental impact they do not provide required protection to the instruments being carried. The soft outer covering and the inner lining of the bags are unable to provide adequate protection to the delicate and vulnerable portions of the instruments.
Thus, it has been noticed that the conventional casings and bags being used for carrying instruments are either heavy, awkward in shape and expensive or they are unable to provide adequate protection to the instrument, particularly to its delicate parts, against damage in case of accidental impact.
It is also known to locate the ends of fragile or delicate objects like television and glass tubes in recessed supports made of light material like thermocol or Styrofoam so that objects in most parts are in air. The objects fitted with such recessed end supports are inserted in packaging, generally corrugated cardboard boxes, for the purpose of transportation. The idea behind such packaging of the fragile objects is to ensure that during transport any physical impact on the outer-box does not get transmitted to the objects themselves. However, such packaging concept or procedure is not relevant to the present invention, because it is unsuitable for adoption to carry instruments that require frequent taking out and stowing back.
An object of the present invention is to provide a portable casing for carrying instruments, in which instruments can be carried conveniently and also to provide substantial protection to the instrument against accidental damage, particularly to its delicate parts by having the instrument disposed more or less in the middle of the casing in a such a manner that the delicate parts of the instruments remain suspended in mid-air.
Another object of the present invention is to ensure that the same casing can be used to accommodate, in a secured manner, instrument of varying sizes but belonging to the same class.
Yet another object of the present invention is to ensure that the foregoing objects are realized in a simple and cost-effective manner.